


Maybe the odds are in your favour

by FlorBexter



Category: HIStory3 - 圈套 | HIStory3: Trapped
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Flirting, M/M, Out of Order Collection, Pining, Romance, Shao Fei's car breaks down, h3trappedcollection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:55:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25382695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlorBexter/pseuds/FlorBexter
Summary: “What are you doing here?”, Tang Yi asked emphatically because yes, it was more surprising to see Shao Fei here, right?“My car broke down,” Shao Fei said and scratched the back of his neck as embarrassment flooded through his body. He closed his mouth as he wanted to get into detail about his misadventure even though he knew that Tang Yi wouldn’t care. Why did he feel the urge to explain himself to Tang Yi every time he met him? But… it was just one of many urges he had around the other man. Yeah…
Relationships: Meng Shao Fei/Tang Yi
Comments: 16
Kudos: 240
Collections: Out of Order





	Maybe the odds are in your favour

**Author's Note:**

> A little something for the Out of Order Collection. I hope you have fun reading ❤

Shao Fei had known that his car had run on prayers and wishful thinking rather than the real stuff a car should rely on. But now, not even the lucky-charm Zhao Zi had hung on his rear-view mirror was able to get his car running again. The motor had started to make some noise like a bear was hiding under the hood as Shao Fei had taken the last curve on the mountain path and then as if it hadn’t had the remaining strength for a dramatic death it had just died. It didn’t even grace Shao Fei with smoke or crazy blinking signs on his dashboard. Just… nothing.

He was able to steer the car with the last bit of energy on a little patch of gravel next to the road and pulled the hand brake. He tried to start it a couple of times, but it was like playing with a toy car. He even climbed out of the car and looked under the hood as if whatever was happening under there would tell him something. He pleaded, he prayed, he cursed and then just laid his head against the steering wheel in defeat.

When he searched for his phone on the passenger seat he knew, he knew it in every bone of his body, he knew that it would tell him that he had no signal. He still stared at the sign feeling somewhat betrayed and then threw the phone over his shoulder on the backseat.

At least Zhao Zi knew where he had gone and would, hopefully, start looking for him when he wouldn’t come back. Or so he hoped. There was much that could distract Zhao Zi, but Shao Fei was sure he would start looking for him after three days… surely.

And it wasn’t like he was in the middle of nowhere. He was _somewhere_ just not very close to civilisation. Cars had passed him on his way here and if no one would appear in the next two hours he would just walk back to the little village he had visited in the hopes of getting some information on a suspect. He may have shaken up the little community with questions about someone all of them wanted to forget – or so it had appeared – but he had been nice and polite, so he hoped they would at least let him use a phone. It wasn’t even noon as he had driven off in the early morning hours long before sunrise.

He thought too much about _woulds_ he realized and leaned back with a huge sigh. He felt tired and agitated at the same time, worn-out too thin over the last weeks as they tried to catch a killer. It had been a last-minute decision to travel to the little village and try to somehow get to know this man but Shao Fei had the feeling he had reinvented himself, had been born anew as he had left the mountains behind. He believed the villagers that they had never heard from him again after he had left his home.

He had to accept that sometimes his instincts were right and sometimes not and maybe the Captain wouldn’t yell too long at him because it was punishment enough that his car broke down on a remote mountain pass.

He drummed with his fingers on the steering wheel and then searched through his glove compartment for a chocolate bar. He didn’t dare to check the expiration date and it might taste a bit… _different,_ but a situation like this needed a sugar-fix.

He just brushed the chocolate crumbs from his shirt when the lights of a car appeared around the curve his car had decided to no longer work, and he quickly grabbed his phone and jumped out of his car.

Please stop, please stop, please stop, he thought, his arms raised to wave, and his heart made a happy leap when the car slowed down and stopped a few metres away from him. Shao Fei jogged towards the driver’s side and put on a wide smile as the window slid down slowly to reveal the driver.

“Officer Meng?”

Shao Fei stared. And stared, and his smile was frozen in place and he might have blinked a bit too often because the mocking raise of an eyebrow told him enough of his dumbfounded face.

“Tang Yi?”, he asked with too much disbelief in his voice and then he blinked some more. His brain wasn’t able to process the information his eyes delivered. But it was Tang Yi. The hair, perfectly styled, the face, attractive, the clothes, a sharp suit as always.

“What are you doing here?”, Shao Fei asked and looked left and right because he had to make sure that they still were on a street in the mountains and nothing but trees and the sky with them.

Amusement flickered over Tang Yi’s face, as always on Shao Fei’s behalf. His dark eyes travelled over Shao Fei’s state of being and Shao Fei brushed quickly over his shirt again.

“I checked on our vacation home after the storm from last week,” Tang Yi said and switched the motor off.

Oh yes, Shao Fei had listened when Li Zhen had talked about it but he hadn’t made the connection that Tang Yi would be the one driving up there to see if there had been any damage that needed repairment.

“What are _you_ doing here?”, Tang Yi asked emphatically because yes, it was more surprising to see Shao Fei here, right?

“My car broke down,” Shao Fei said and scratched the back of his neck as embarrassment flooded through his body. He closed his mouth as he wanted to get into detail about his misadventure even though he knew that Tang Yi wouldn’t care. Why did he feel the urge to explain himself to Tang Yi every time he met him? But… it was just one of many urges he had around the other man. Yeah…

“You need a ride?”, Tang Yi asked and in the matter of a few seconds, everything that made Shao Fei so embarrassed around Tang Yi flooded his mind and the prospect of sitting in a car with him for a few hours made his body break out in cold sweat.

“Oh no!” Shao Fei tried to soften his outburst as Tang Yi reared a bit back because of his vehemence. “I mean, no, thank you. It’s enough if you could tell the station that I’m stuck here? Zhao Zi can pick me up.”

“You really want to wait here until they have the time to send someone?” Now Tang Yi sounded disbelieving _and_ judging and Shao Fei knew that what he said didn't make sense but… He never made sense when Tang Yi was around him, so why now?

“It’s okay, really!”

Heaven decided it had enough of his lies and opened the floodgates, rain pouring down on him, drenching him from head to toes in seconds and through the raindrops on his lashes Shao Fei saw the smile Tang Yi wanted to hide. He sighed. This was not how he had planned his day to go.

* * *

“Thank you,” Shao Fei said and then pressed his lips together because there was surely a quota on how often someone was allowed to say thank you and he had used his up for today.

“No problem,” Tang Yi said, “just put the towel in the back when you’re done.” Shao Fei nodded and started to rub his hair dry. The inside of Tang Yi’s car was blessedly warm and he even had turned up the heater even though it had to be uncomfortable in the turtleneck he wore under his suit jacket. Shao Fei sat against another towel because his shirt was soaking wet but at least his jeans just were slightly damp.

And here he was again he thought with a silent snort. A dishevelled mess next to a perfect Tang Yi. He folded the towel before he laid it on the backseat and then put on the safety belt.

“As dry as it gets,” he said with a smile and it was nice that Tang Yi returned the smile before he started the engine and steered the car back onto the right lane.

As always in Tang Yi’s proximity, he felt a mixture of embarrassment and longing battling in his chest. He liked Tang Yi, he really did, but the reminder of the disaster of a date they had gone through two years ago was like a neon-sign in Shao Fei’s mind. He couldn’t forget about it and the smirk Tang Yi always threw in his direction when they met told him that Tang Yi hadn’t forgotten either.

He had tried to explain himself, but Tang Yi had, rightly so, blocked his number and since then Shao Fei had never tried to find out if his status has changed. He just had waited too long and rambling about it while Tang Yi drove him down the mountains after a random meeting was too weird. Tang Yi was the son of his Captain but that didn’t make them friends or anything more. A small silver lining was that apparently Tang Yi had never told his mother about the disastrous state Shao Fei had been in during their date, a small favour, but Shao Fei was endlessly thankful for that. Enough that he was able to endure the mocking glances Tang Yi threw his way every time he visited the police department.

Shao Fei crossed his arms but untangled them soon because his shirt clung to his chest and despite the heating, he felt chills. Sitting around in a wet shirt wasn’t a nice experience.

“Are you working a case?”, Tang Yi asked, ending the silence.

“Yes,” he answered and wondered if Li Zhen had told her son about the case. It wouldn’t make a difference because it was a public case and already the top subject on every news station. As the detective’s team with the highest rate of solving major crime cases, it wasn’t wrong to assume Li Zhen and the rest of Team 3 were the leading investigators in the gruesome killings. Shao Fei just had hoped his little excursion would have led to some information to help find out where their suspect had holed up after they had put an alert on his name.

“Just some investigation,” he added. Tang Yi nodded and they went silent. Shao Fei stared out of the window and tried not to shiver.

“Is everything alright with your vacation home?”, he asked and hid a grimace in the turn of his head. Why was he suddenly so bad at small talk?

“Nothing major, the house is still intact, but some trees and bushes got torn out, the vegetable patch is a mess. My father loves gardening though so I think he’s not going to be too upset about the prospect to do some redecoration.”

Tang Guo Dong was something like a legend in the police department. Shao Fei remembered distinctively the first time he had met him as a rookie detective on his first day in the department. He had thought the man with the apron around his waist had been a colleague but instead it turned out he had, as always, brought his wife and the rest of the department a home-cooked meal.

“The buns he brought us last week were delicious,” Shao Fei said.

“I helped to fill them,” Tang Yi said, and Shao Fei blinked at him in surprise.

“You like to cook?”

Tang Yi threw him a look and then laughed out loud. Shao Fei could only stare at him because Tang Yi, while he had a sly sense of humour wasn’t one to openly laugh with people.

“What’s so funny?”

“It’s just… I told you that,” Tang Yi said and then with a shake of his head, “on our date.”

The flush spreading over Shao Fei’s face almost made him forgot how cold he was. He opened his mouth, but Tang Yi was quicker. “I really was that uninteresting?” He didn’t sound disappointed per se, but the self-depriving humour was somewhat worse.

“No!” Shao Fei really wanted to disappear into thin air. He knew it would be a bad idea to get into Tang Yi’s car. “That’s not it!”

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Tang Yi said and waved as if to make their conversation disappear. “I’m not mad at you about it. And believe me, I had worser dates afterwards.”

Shao Fei was wet and miserable and now he felt a stab in his chest. Of course, Tang Yi had been on dates after theirs. It had been a bad date, the worst.

“I’m sorry,” Shao Fei murmured and how bad would it be if he just jumped out of a driving car?

“Do you want to change out of your wet shirt?”, Tang Yi asked in a clear attempt to change the subject and without waiting for an answer stopped the car.

Shao Fei wanted to decline but his body decided then and there to do a full shudder and he glanced at Tang Yi through his fringes.

Tang Yi snorted and said: “I have sports clothes in the trunk, come on it doesn’t rain anymore. My mum is going to kill me if her favourite detective gets a cold.” There was no one on the road beside them and it wasn’t like he would go completely naked, so Shao Fei followed Tang Yi and wrapped his arms around himself as the wind showed him how cold he really was.

Tang Yi rummaged through a bag and handed him a running shirt and as their fingers brushed against each other Shao Fei got reminded, again, that this two-year-old crush just refused to die.

Like with every other Tang family member Shao Fei had thought Tang Yi had been part of the department, maybe a district attorney with the sharp suit and even sharper tongue but his face had melted into the softest smile as he had spotted Li Zhen and, theoretically, Shao Fei had known that his Captain had a son around his age but the reality of it had punched him in the guts.

Shao Fei didn’t have the competence or experience to know if someone was flirting with him or was just nice and he didn’t want to assume. When Tang Yi had asked him out, he had said yes immediately but then…

“I was on painkillers that day,” Shao Fei said suddenly and saw in the lift of Tang Yi’s eyebrows that he had no idea what he was talking about, but he needed to barrel on. This was a chance to tell him what had happened that day and he _needed_ to tell him even if he was two years too late. He lifted his shirt and turned to show Tang Yi the scar on his waist. “That day… the day of our date. I had a long shift and then got attacked by a suspect with a knife and had to get stitches and I know, I know I should just have postponed the date but I really liked you and thought you wouldn’t want another date and I realize that were the painkillers speaking and just…” He took a deep breath, “I’m really sorry, okay? I woke up two days later and realized what happened and then you, rightly so, blocked me and it seemed too late for an apology but... I’m sorry, I really am.”

Tang Yi stared at the scar on his skin and Shao Fei realized he was standing there with his shirt half off, but he felt a million times lighter than before. He had always wanted to apologize to Tang Yi for that shitty date and yes, they stood at the side of the road an hour away from Taipei, but it felt good to have that off his chest.

Tang Yi glanced back to his face, his mimic unreadable and then a slow, teasing smile spread over his face.

“You really liked me?”, he purred, and the flush was back on Shao Fei’s face. He changed into Tang Yi’s running shirt quickly and closed the trunk lid without daring to look at Tang Yi. The past tense was all wrong in Tang Yi’s question, but he wasn’t going to tell him that.

“Don’t ignore me! Hey!” But Shao Fei power-walked around the car and climbed back into the passenger seat.

“The painkillers actually explain a lot,” Tang Yi said as he was back in the car with too much glee in his voice and Shao Fei groaned.

“I really don’t want to talk about it.”

“About what? That you asked the same questions thrice? Or that you almost threw up on my shoes? I thought you were drunk.”

“Didn’t I say sorry already?” Shao Fei hid his face behind his hands and glance through his fingers as he heard Tang Yi’s throaty laugh.

“It’s okay, I’m glad you told me now, even if you could have told me _then_. Wait.” Tang Yi frowned his hand on the keys. “That’s a big scar. Shouldn’t you have stayed in the hospital or got sick leave?”

Shao Fei shrugged. “It wasn’t that bad.”

“I always thought mum exaggerated when she told me about your tendency to downplay your injuries.” He sounded unimpressed. “Are you hiding an injury now?”

“No? My car just broke down.”

“Do you have a concussion?”

“There was no accident, my car just stopped working.”

Tang Yi looked him over in a clear attempt to assess if he was lying and Shao Fei scrunched his nose at him.

“I like that your curl stands out even though your whole hair is a dishevelled mess,” Tang Yi said then and Shao Fei gaped at him. He could only guess that Tang Yi had said that to make him blush again. He felt timid and shy and that was the total opposite to how he was, but Tang Yi had always been good at rendering him into a blushing mess. This car drive was going to be a nightmare.

“Was the guy who attacked you at least prosecuted, or did he go away?”

“We had already arrested him, it’s a bit embarrassing but now if someone has three knives, we will also look for the fourth.”

He saw out of the corner of his eyes how Tang Yi shook his head at that, clearly entertained and something warm and pleased curled up in Shao Fei’s chest. Tang Yi’s shirt was a bit loose around his shoulders, but he wasn’t as muscular as Tang Yi and he always wondered why he walked around like a fashion-model when his father preferred loose linen clothes and he never saw Li Zhen in anything else than comfortable clothes in which she was able to move freely.

“Where are the other scars from?”

Shao Fei looked up and frowned at Tang Yi’s profile.

“You want to know the stories behind my scars?”

“It seems more entertaining than seeing you sweating all over the noodles.”

Shao Fei threw his hands up. “It were really heavy painkillers!”

Tang Yi winked at him which made Shao Fei all hot and bothered and annoyed simultaneously. But the smile Tang Yi tried to hide behind his hand wasn’t mean, but kind and Shao Fei huffed.

“Seriously, are those all from your work?”

“They aren’t that many,” Shao Fei tried to defend himself but when Tang Yi made him list them all up and he wasn’t even done at ten he figured he had a bit of a problem. Tang Yi had _opinions_ about the stories and Shao Fei laughed out loud when Tang Yi told him how he should have acted in the situations.

“It’s not like I can walk around with a bullet-proof vest all the time,” he said at one point and snorted when Tang Yi threw him a wholly unimpressed look.

“You should, you really should. You’re a walking knife-magnet.”

Maybe this day hadn’t been for nothing after all. Yes, his car had broken down and he didn’t want to think about what it would cost to get it off the mountain but it felt good to sit here, with the knowledge that he had cleared the air with Tang Yi. The memory of the date was still stuff for nightmares, but it wouldn’t cling to him as bad as before.

The police department appeared in their sight and when Tang Yi stopped the car Shao Fei asked: “Do you want to come inside, say hello to your mother?”

Tang Yi shook his head. “I need to head to the office,” and then added with the teasing smile of someone who had found a new hobby and was determined to squeeze every ounce of joy out of it: “I told you what I do for a living at our date, you remember?”

Shao Fei undid his safety belt with a suffering sigh. “I don’t remember, no. I do remember though that I at least paid for my half of the meal.”

Tang Yi’s smile widened to something shark-like. “I made you pay for the whole meal don’t you worry.”

“Oh… I guess that’s fair.”

“Do you know what else is fair?”

Shao Fei was afraid to ask so he just looked at Tang Yi carefully. His hand was already on the door handle of the car and he was ready to jump out and run.

“That you are going to give me back my running shirt. Maybe tomorrow evening, eight o clock and we try that date again. Without any of us being on drugs.”

Shao Fei wanted to point out that he hadn’t been on drugs per se but some part of his brain that was clearly more intelligent than the rest of it made him say instead: “Yes, please.”

Tang Yi’s smile was small and pleased and Shao Fei smiled back helplessly, and he stood at the curb for longer than was necessary after Tang Yi and his car were long gone.

Best day ever.


End file.
